Meeting: Bible Study
Date: 17th April, 2026
Message: Developing the Culture of Meditation on the Word (Part 2)
Minister: Pastor Laide Olaniyan
Meditation is to sit upon words with a desire to resolve it, while it stirs our curiosity. When we can’t resolve it ourselves we seek someone more enlightened, either the person that sent or taught it or another person older than us to help us unravel it.
(Acts 8:26-34) We see the Ethiopian eunuch who Philip was told to join in the chariot, and how he had spent time reading through the book of Isaiah despite not having understanding but with a resolve to know who prophet Isaiah was talking about in the prophecy or what witness he was trying to represent. He might even have prayed in his heart while trying by every means under heaven to understand. We see how the Holy Ghost, understanding his limitation, told Philip to go and join himself with the chariot. Why? Because, sometimes while meditating there is a limitation in us such that there is no breakthrough in understanding. As a result of this limitation, the Lord has to go outside of us to bring us to a resolve.
We should not be quick to ascribe any understanding to scriptures. One of the disciplines of growing in the spirit is the witness of the Spirit upon scriptures, that is, when the Spirit bears witness that this is the right division of the word. Rev. Hagin has had to wait for several years for a breakthrough in the understanding of a particular scripture. There are also scriptures our grandparents are still waiting on the Lord for understanding.
Scriptures are filled with thoughts. Different individuals, at different spiritual levels or age groups can read the scripture and fetch different thoughts from it. As much as we are all encouraged to read the Bible, it doesn’t mean that it is everything we read that we get the power to understand at once. Some might stir up some controversies while others might not.
The essence of this teaching is to cause us to fall in love with the Bible. The Bible is something we are meant to eat and eat and feed upon graciously everyday without being slack in fellowshipping with, because the manner or discipline of staying on the word of God is gradually fading. It is not just carrying the physical Bible, but endeavoring to retain the word in our hearts.
There are certain things a person may not have immediate breakthrough into, but you must have the discipline of staying and the interest of resolving it. We should allow ourselves to be troubled with scriptures until we get the intent or heart of the Spirit when He says things.
We must also be interested in knowing why the Bible, the word of God and other materials are not. These are things that should pique our curiosity. Many times our belief system is shaped by the conclusion or understanding of those around us like our parents. For some of us we became Christians as a result of what our parents passed down to us. As much as that has a part to play, we must make an effort to search for ourselves why the Bible is the word of God and is indisputable.
It takes faith to understand the word. (Heb. 11:3) – “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” – Everything we understand, we understand by faith; in the spirit we believe and then we understand. Our faith precedes our understanding. We believe that the Bible is the word of God and it’s on that premise or authority of the person who authored it that we are able to draw life from it.
(2 Tim. 3:16) – “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”
(2 Peter 1:21) – “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
Being moved by the Holy Ghost means to be inspired by the Holy Ghost to put down things, but this doesn’t mean that they fully comprehended what it is that they wrote down, but the Holy Ghost moved them to pen down things for ages to come and also oversaw the inspiration, compilation and preservation of what we have as the word of God today. If anybody can discredit the Bible, without you having a basis for your faith, then everything will seem like a lie. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God given for our salvation.
(John 20:30-31) – “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
(John 21:25) – “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”
This means that according to the truth of God’s word, all that’s written in the scripture is sufficient to persuade any soul that will be persuaded. The reason for all that was written is to establish that Jesus is Christ. This writing wasn’t just for a record of the life of Jesus, but this is a principle that governs everything that was written in the bible. God choicefully selected everything that is written, meaning we do not need any more biblical account to believe and be persuaded (Luke 16:27-31). The Scripture is sufficient to make us believe and then to have life.
The scripture is God’s key to deliver life to any soul and we cannot afford to live outside of the confines and witness of the scriptures. Jesus himself lived in scriptures. Scripture is a compilation of spiritual materials that is witnessing to something more divine, it is not really the hard cover bible and its letters. Words were used to encode things of God that are spiritual, divine and eternal things. One thing about scriptures is that everything is spirit-filled including every punctuation. Even a space in the scripture has a major role to play, because if the Holy Ghost doesn’t breathe upon it, we might not get the underlying meaning.They all have their spiritual importance and can change the layout of what God is saying in a scripture (Matt. 5:18).
To fully comprehend anything even naturally, we need to meditate. Meditation helps the heart and mind to retain knowledge because knowledge is slippery. We must have noticed that the Bible is completely different from every other book. Each time we open it, we find ourselves colliding with spirits. It’s not even about the different translations, there is just something about the Bible that makes it different.
We could cultivate a habit of writing down what God is saying in the place of staying on His word, including the scriptural reference. We could see it as our book of instruction and guidance. This shows a sign of growth. It makes us build an expectation of hearing from God each time we stay with His word, desiring for the Lord to witness to us through His word, and to understand His general thoughts.
(Psa. 119:11) – “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” – Meditation is a good practice, but is not in itself a guarantee, rather it’s the first step. The same David that prayed to the Lord to “keep your servant from presumptuous sin” but before that time, we haven’t heard anything about presumptuous sin. How did he find out about presumptuous sin, testimonies, statutes, judgement? Those were things that we didn’t find in the law. How did he breakthrough into them and then started saying that the meditation in the testimony of God is what keeps his feet. This means that while meditating on it, he is seeing areas where he needs to call for help or the mercy of God to keep his feet. It’s not just that he was kept because he crammed the word, no. He put the word in his mind, by meditating upon it. There was a deliberate and conscious musing on the word to breakthrough into the spirit of it.
It’s in the place of pondering that we all come to the place of understanding. When we ponder many times, we are able to generate prayer points. By reading the Bible alone by yourself, you will not be able to pray and pray very well, but by going further to meditate on the word, you begin to see your lack; you will see places where you need help, where thanksgiving is needed, where you are deficient and your prayer becomes richer. In the place of exercising the mind to ponder and contemplate on the word, light is being shed to dark places, because meditating is actually called seeking in the spirit; it’s a quest for knowledge and for breakthrough in understanding. When a soul seeks to resolve scriptures, it is seen as asking in the spirit, you are asking for understanding, you are not just being religious. You are just ticking your religious box if you are not actually seeking or enquiring of the Lord.
Meditation must include searching and inquiring – “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” (Psa. 27:4).
In the place of reflection, meditation, musing, and pondering, the heart and the mind begin to ask questions and one of the things that is important in the place of meditation is the attitude of supplication, meekness, and contriteness.
The word is spiritual and it tries the heart. It’s a veil we must pass through to see what’s in the spirit. Before the veil opens up, it tries our heart to see what we are truly looking for. This is why we have people who have degrees in theology or read scriptures 200 times but yet are unable to see God.
The spirit of the word tries our heart to find out what we are truly looking for. It seeks out the why; are you looking for Him or you are looking for light to shine, weapon of ministry, anointing, points to argue with, how to counter the people that look mighty, how it can change your life around? A person can have numerous reasons why they are reading the bible, but it reads into the depth of our heart to find out the true intentions behind our seeking. The word can open up to us to the degree in which we are looking for it in response to our heart. It can just open a door, while we think we have found what is inside, not knowing we have missed it.
The great mercy a soul can find when approaching the word is in the place of contrition, humility and meekness. Where the heart has found grace to seek for God, the being, behind the bible. The being, He himself and not any other thing.
It’s a fearful thing, because we might have what looks like legitimate reasons for why we seek the word, like for a pastor, it could be for the sake of ministry, but as sincere as that is, it can also be a limitation if that’s the only thing that is being sought for.
Without being critical of Solomon, Solomon asked God not to ask for how to please God, but how to judge the people and God recognised how wise he was asking for that, and He gave it to him, but somewhere he missed the mark. We must be careful about what we ask God, especially when He presents a blank cheque before us.
Something must have informed Solomon’s act, it even looked like the best choice, in comparison with other choices; the life of his enemy, or to elongate his kingdom, and so the Lord decided to give him wealth and wisdom in addition, how come that same man missed God? As much as he was mindful enough to want to judge the people righteously, but he wasn’t as burdened as laying hold on the reality of God and finishing well like his father David.
Sometimes when the Lord shows up, it’s what is the topmost on our heart that we present to Him, that must have been the meditation of his heart. Even in our seemingly spiritual desires, flesh is still very much present;i.e the way to preserve and establish ourselves is present in our hearts.
One of the greatest mercies the heart finds is in the place of contrition before the Lord, to desire to see him perfectly and then please Him in all things, because He can open another door to us, enabling a soul to travel far from Him. For example, if the reason why you are coming before Him is for Him to use you, He can open the door of usefulness to you and then you will go far as a useful vessel. A vessel can be used and not have the life of the user.
The Lord will show us mercy, that our hearts will be arranged right, that we will not be reading and still not find the knowledge of God or His Spirit. Our heart cry is to lay hold on the truth of God. The arrangement of the heart is necessary. In the place of meditation, many times we come with questions that we can’t resolve. We should not leave things unresolved or give up on reading the Bible altogether when we have unanswered questions for a long period of time. Some of us even just forget about it but we must be mindful of leaving things unresolved without consistently approaching God, because that place that you aren’t able to resolve remains a ground that Satan can still tempt you on. As long as the right light has not broken forth, that place remains grey to us, meaning that Satan will still leverage on our lack of the perfect light needed regarding that scripture.
It’s not just because we want to come into understanding, but because as long as we can’t resolve it by the spirit, we can’t stand in truth, and as long as we aren’t standing in truth, Satan can beguile us. That’s why there is a desire and quest inside our heart to be able to find out the truth about God’s word and stand on it because that truth that we stand upon becomes a solid rock.
(Matt. 7:24-25) The reason why we need to resolve and know that this is what God’s word is saying of truth shows that I want to be planted on solid rock. Finding and doing the word is actually building on the rock.
The person that built on the sand also built but he didn’t find the rock and didn’t build on the rock. He built on a loose sand; this means that what he did wasn’t the truth of God’s word. He did something else other than the truth of God’s word. The doing is the building, but the ground or the rock is the truth. We find it then build upon it.
We must find the rock and the rock is God’s truth. Until you find the truth of God’s word, you haven’t found the rock, and so you can’t build upon it and everything that you build is on a loose soil. When we try to resolve the truth of God’s word, we just don’t want to build anywhere, we want to get to the stable soil and then build on it, so that we are certain that no matter what comes our way, the building won’t give way or be lost.
There is a difference between reading and studying the word of God. In reading, we can actually read anything, but when it comes to studying, if you don’t know where and how to start, we become more confused than ever. In studying you have to build systematically and there is no hurry in studying.
It will be wise to get a study aid/study bible that enhances your ability to find what you are looking for in the Bible. Some have a good center reference, a good chain reference, or guide notes. Each of these materials is a good investment in your spiritual growth. It is good to learn to invest in that which is of greater value than worldly investment (Prov. 23:23), (Matt. 6:21). While many study materials are now available online as e-copies, it’s good to learn to pay a premium for access to these things.
Satan has done a bad job in discouraging us from finding out the truth embedded in scripture let alone talk about studying. That’s not how God designed our life, He designed us to be so obsessed with finding Him that we are eager to seek and search Him out.
(Acts 17:24-27) God wants us to find Him personally, that’s why He gave us pastors; the fivefold ministry. They are not to shield us from finding God but to help you to find Him. The journey of finding God is a personal journey that God ordained for everyone and we can’t find Him without His word. The fivefold ministers are not a replacement for this personal quest, but they are to enhance, motivate and stir us.
God will help us to be a people that invest heavily in spiritual resources, and most importantly our heart and time.
(Acts 17:27) – “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:” – We should desire to find God and lay hold on Him. Gone are the days when we put our Bible under our pillow out of religion or to wade off demons. The Bible is not meant to be misused or abused.
Tongues and Interpretation
Knowledge! Knowledge, my knowledge
Buy knowledge, buy knowledge
Purchase my knowledge, buy for yourself my knowledge, my knowledge is gold, take knowledge, see knowledge, buy knowledge.
Message continues..
What you treasure you make sacrifices for. If you are not making sacrifices, you don’t actually value it.
THE END.